- Check your bits

Northumberland Tyne and Wear
Chlamydia Screening
Annual Report 2008/09
Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................4
Key developments/innovative practice
Launch of NT&W Chlamydia Screening TV Campaign ....................................14
Population sizes and targets ..............................................................................5
Pregnant mums to be screened for Chlamydia ..............................................16
Obstetrics and Gynaecology .............................................................................16
North East testing volumes, coverage and proportion positive
Vital Signs Indicator: Apr 08 - Mar 09 ................................................................6
Coverage by Gender: Apr 08 - Mar 09 ...............................................................6
Proportion positive by age and sex: Apr 08 - Mar 09 .......................................7
Chlamydia mail out Pilot ..................................................................................17
Peer Education Outreach Project ....................................................................18
Pride Event ........................................................................................................18
Advertising and Marketing...............................................................................19
Creative Chlamydia Event ................................................................................20
Evaluation of Postal Service ..............................................................................21
Screening venues
NCSP Testing Venues: Apr 08 - Mar 09...............................................................7
NCSP Testing Venues - North Tyneside, South Tyneside,
Newcastle and Gateshead: Apr 08 - Mar 09 ......................................................8
Working with Community Pharmacies.............................................................22
Examples of Good practice across the Primary Care Trusts
NCSP Testing Venues - Northumberland and Sunderland:
Apr 08 - Mar 09....................................................................................................9
Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust ........................................................22
Proportion of tests from Community Sexual Health services:
Apr 08 - Mar 09....................................................................................................9
Outreach work with luxury toilets ..................................................................24
Proportion of tests from General Practice: Apr 08 - Mar 09 ..........................10
Proportion of tests from remote testing: Apr 08 - Mar 09.............................11
Positivity by Venue Type: Apr 08 - Mar 09.......................................................12
Proportion of index cases treated in various venue types:
(Apr - Dec 2008) .................................................................................................13
Proportion of partners treated in various venue types:
(Apr - Dec 2008) .................................................................................................13
Screening in Schools in Sunderland ................................................................23
South Tyneside Primary Care Trust ..................................................................24
Gateshead Primary Care Trust ..........................................................................25
Newcastle Primary Care Trust ..........................................................................26
West End Youth Enquiry Service WEYES..........................................................26
North Tyneside Primary Care Trust ...................................................................27
Northumberland Care Trust .............................................................................27
Castington Young Offenders institute ............................................................27
Areas for further development during 2009/10 .............................................27
2
3
Introduction
The Northumberland Tyne and Wear
chlamydia screening programme (NT&W
CSP) is part of the Governments
National chlamydia screening
programme (NCSP) in England to
control Chlamydia through the early
detection and treatment of
asymptomatic infection: to prevent the
development of sequelae; and to reduce
the onward disease transmission.
The programme vision is to implement a
multi-faceted, evidence based and cost
effective national prevention and
control programme for genital
Chlamydia infection across England in
which all sexually active men and
women under 25 years of age are aware
of Chlamydia, have access to services
providing screening, prevention and
Population sizes and targets
treatment to reduce their risk of
infection or onward transmission.
The NT&W CSP was launched in January
2007 and is hosted and managed by
Newcastle Primary Care Trust on behalf
of North Tyneside Primary Care Trust,
Northumberland Care Trust, Newcastle
Primary Care Trust, Sunderland Primary
Care Trust, Gateshead Primary Care
Trust and South Tyneside Primary Care
Trust.
During 2008/09 the chlamydia screening
programme was part of the vital signs
indicator target which was to screen
17% of the 15 to 24 year old
population. This equates to 32,997
screens which the NTWCSP exceeded.
Vital Signs Indicator
The Vital Signs indicator is both a national priority and target. The target for
2008/09 was to screen 17% of the 15-24 year old population across Northumberland,
Tyne and Wear. The table below shows this broken down by Primary Care Trust.
Population sizes and service targets
(Population data for 2008/09 is that which was submitted by Primary Care Trusts in their
plans)
Primary Care Trust
Population size
Number of screens to reach 17%
Newcastle
51,800
8,806
North Tyneside
23,300
3,961
Gateshead
24,000
4,080
South Tyneside
19,900
3,383
Sunderland
40,000
6,800
Northumberland
35,100
5,967
194,100
32,997
Total
Performance data 2008/09
The Northumberland Tyne and wear Chlamydia screening programme screened 35,745 of
the 15-24 year olds during April 2008 - March 2009 and exceeded the 17% national target.
The table below shows the breakdown by Primary Care Trust.
Primary Care Trust
4
Total
Activity
Total CSP
Activity
Total Non
CSP Activity
Year to date
Actual
Approx Number
of screens
exceeding target
Gateshead
4346
3103
1243
18.1%
-266
Newcastle
9607
7573
2034
18.5%
-801
N Tyneside
4528
2804
1724
19.4%
-567
Northumberland
6298
3721
2577
17.9%
-331
S Tyneside
3886
3427
459
19.5%
-503
Sunderland
7080
5370
1710
17.7%
-280
Total
35745
25994
9751
18%
-2748
5
North East testing volumes, coverage
and proportion positive
Proportion positive by age and sex:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
Vital Signs Indicator: Apr 08 - Mar 09
Screening venues
NCSP Testing Venues: Apr 08 - Mar 09
Coverage by Gender: Apr 08 - Mar 09
Proportion of core services and positivity figures reflects NCSP tests only. Coverage figure
includes non NCSP non GUM tests and NCSP tests.
Some venue proportions may be under-represented
6
7
NCSP Testing Venues:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
NCSP Testing Venues:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
NCSP Testing Venues:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
Proportion of tests from Community
Sexual Health Services: Apr 08 - Mar 09
8
9
Proportion of tests from General Practice:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
Proportion of tests from Educational Services:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
Proportion of tests from Pharmacies:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
Proportion of tests from remote testing:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
10
11
Positivity by Venue Type:
Apr 08 - Mar 09
Patient and partner management
Proportion of index cases treated in
various venue types: Apr - Dec 2008
Proportion of partners treated in
various venue types: Apr - Dec 2008
12
13
Key developments/innovative practice
Launch of NT&W Chlamydia Screening
TV Campaign
Key challenges of the campaign were to:
• Match existing branding and provide
consistent messages
In October 2008 the NT&W CSP
Commissioned the production of a
television commercial to support delivery of
the screening programme on behalf of the
6 Primary Care Trusts. The development of
this Social Marketing campaign proved
successful by largely increasing screening
uptake, and provided key learning points
for other programme areas considering
similar approaches.
• To acknowledge that young
people are sexually active and
be non judgmental
• To normalise and
de stigmatise
scripts, one animation, one live action,
which were then closely reviewed and
influenced by young people from the 6
Primary Care Trusts. Consultation activity
was conducted by partner agencies with 47
young people from a range of youth
groups, organizations, including Primary
Care Trust staff, GUM service users, young
mums group, peer educators, LGB youth
groups and college students. Feedback for
this activity included:
setting, it gave the commercial a fluid, but
slightly edgy motion, with the shot in the
style of “Hotel Babylon”.
• To dispel myths
• To promote ease of testing and treatment
• To use fashion/style/communication
technology
A review of screening activity during
2007/08 demonstrated lower up take of
chlamydia screening within the 20 to 24
year old male and female population,
therefore it was decided to target this age
group.
• To ensure a direct response.
The medium of TV was chosen for its higher
potential impact following a review of local
media reach and impact which included
print and radio media. In tyne tees region it
was estimated that given 31 peak and 54
off peak spots coinciding with 'this
morning', coronation street, 'x factor' and
'the bill', the estimated impacts would be
6,504, 300 adults with 80.7% seeing the
advert once or more and 47.9% 4 or more
times.
Taking time to gain insight into the target
population was therefore essential to this
approach as it placed the client at the
centre. Focus groups and user consultation
took place in each of the six Primary Care
Trusts with the target age group, with the
aim of raising awareness of chlamydia and
generating a DIRECT RESPONSE which
involves young people requesting and
completing a chlamydia screen.
The media sub group worked closely with
the TV Company to develop two film
“Make the advert
adult enough, not
too young”
“It uses the
gremlin, that's easily
recognizable”
The Chlamydia TV Campaign ran from 6th
October until 2nd Nov 08 on Tyne Tees TV.
The aim of the campaign was to raise
awareness of chlamydia and encourage
young people to request a test by texting
'Gremlin' followed by their name and
address to 80010
”make the characters
like us, normal… not rich,
bit overweight, not
stunningly good looking”
During this period 4339 chlamydia testing
kits were requested through the text back
service and via the website, which is 6.29%
of our target population, with 2,092
(48.21%) of tests returned, 9.66% of those
tests returned were positive.
“Its clear what
it wants us
to do?”
“Make it focus on
positive sexual health,
rather than people who
have an infection/
Chlamydia”
The majority of young people consulted
from the target group preferred the live
action script, however there was still a
proportion of young people who preferred
the animation therefore their comments
were noted and incorporated into the live
action script. Including the comments about
the need for the commercial to feature
'normal' young people were noted and the
majority of the cast were made up of local
young people including those who were
involved in the focus groups. The final cut
combined the fun of a great night out, with
humor that prevented the commercial
adopting a preaching tone. By putting two
young actors in a glamorous nightclub
14
The graph above shows the number of
chlamydia test returns each month from
April to Dec 08. This shows the high
increase in the number of returned tests
during Oct/Nov when the TV ad aired.
The success of this advert has meant that
other chlamydia screening programmes
around the country are interested in
running the TV campaign. As a joint
venture, the North-east and Yorkshire
region have worked together to re-run the
campaign which was aired on Tyne Tees TV
throughout February 2009. The NCSP are
also using this TV advert on their website.
15
Pregnant mums to be screened
for Chlamydia
An effective partnership between the
Northumberland Tyne and Wear Chlamydia
Screening Programme and The Royal
Victoria Infirmary (RVI), has led to hundreds
of mums-to-be under 25 being screened for
Chlamydia, the most common sexually
transmitted disease in this age group.
Recommendations by The National Institute
of Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2008) highlight
that young women are targeted for STI
screening during pregnancy, practice which
is now well established at the RVI, where all
pregnant women under the age of 25 are
given screening information at their
antenatal booking appointment.
Women with positive samples are followed
up by the CSP Health Advisors. The CSP
Health Advisor will offer treatment to
the patient, initiate partner notification
and treat any partners from the
previous six month period, helping to
prevent re-infection and onward
transmission. To check the
effectiveness of treatment, re-testing
is recommended 5 weeks after
completing medication. Consequences
of untreated Chlamydia in pregnancy
may result in infants developing
conjunctivitis in 18-50% of cases and
pneumonia in 11-20% (Moss2006).
Late post partum endometriosis is a
well recognised complication and
occurs in 30% of women with
antenatal Chlamydia infection
(Moss 2006).
The programme is hoping to roll
out screening in antenatal
services across Northumberland
Tyne and Wear to help protect
even more pregnant mums and
their unborn babies.
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
The RVI and South Tyneside Foundation
Trust are working closely with the NTW CSP
to offer screening to all their patients
under 25 years old. The Newcastle HA set
up a training programme for all staff within
this area of practice, and devised a patient
information leaflet, outlining why screening
is offered and what steps to take if positive
results are returned. Care pathways have
been developed for under 25 year olds to
be followed up by CSP Health Advisors who
will contact all positive patients to ensure
they have complied with treatment and to
discuss partner notification. All current or
previous partners will then be offered
treatment by the CSP Health Advisor.
This will assist in reducing the prevalence
of infection in the community and reducing
the incidence of complications.
Chlamydia mail out Pilot
I work at the RVI as the Teenage
Pregnancy Midwife and job share with
Kim Donaldson. We offer antenatal
and postnatal support to teenage
parents under the age of eighteen.
When I first heard about the National
chlamydia screening programme, I
thought this was an excellent way of
offering all the young parents who
have had unprotected sex the
opportunity to be tested for chlamydia.
We address their contraceptive needs
at least twice during the pregnancy
and again afterwards and always
include the young dads with the
support of our young dad's worker.
Young people are always supplied with
condoms and the risks of sexual
transmitted infections are discussed.
The CSP have commissioned the North East
Family Health Services Agency (NEFHSA) to
pilot a scheme to help increase the uptake
of screening in the 20 to 24 year old
population, via proactive screening
methods using GP registers. The target age
group will be 20 to 24 year olds, the age
group the programme is finding more
difficult to engage and hopefully more
likely to respond to an invitation. Proactive
screening would compliment the
opportunistic work by reaching all those
registered with a GP which would
ultimately increase the percentage of those
requesting screening.
Invitations were sent out to a random
sample of 9000 patients (1500 from each
Primary Care Trust that were randomly
selected using Mconnect) this includes:
Northumberland Primary Care Organisation,
Newcastle Primary Care Trust, North
Tyneside Primary Care Trust, South Tyneside
Primary Care Trust, Gateshead Primary Care
Trust and Sunderland Primary Care Trust.
Initially I spoke to my line manager
who suggested speaking to other
midwives and get their thoughts about
introducing yet another piece of work.
The process of actually having the test
now available to all pregnant women
under twenty five took one to two
years to implement with support from
the, managers consultants and the CSP.
All patients were allocated a patient
identification number to ensure anonymity
and confidentiality. 3000 letters were
posted per week commencing Monday
23/2/09 for three weeks. The NEFHSA and
the CSP worked together to ensure safe
anonymous data transfer of those patients
who had submitted a test using the patient
ID code, including those who wanted to be
taken off the database for various reasons.
For those patients who did not respond a
reminder letter was sent out four weeks
after initial letter.
We now routinely offer this to all
pregnant women under twenty five at
the booking visit with the community
midwife and a postal test is available in
the antenatal clinic and the midwifery
assessment unit. The special care unit
was also very supportive and allocated
time to hear about the programme at
their meetings. The antenatal staff and
particularly the administrative staff
also came in their lunch break to listen
to a CSP Health Advisor talking about
the necessity for the programme. We
need to return to each area and
remind people about the importance
of the test and recently put the posters
of the pregnant women up in the unit
which advises the test.
Results: this initiative is currently under
evaluation.
Justina Hanson
Teenage Pregnancy Midwife
17
Peer Education Outreach Project
Teams of peer educators target have been
targeting properties with a door knock
campaign in the student areas. Working in
pairs peer educators knock on doors and
speak to the students living there. Anyone
eligible is offered a free test then and
there.
The Peer Education Outreach project is run
by Foundry on behalf of the CSP. The peer
education project has proved invaluable to
the CSP in terms of adding capacity to the
screening programme and screening young
people via a range of outreach events
organized throughout the year.
“We educate the students about chlamydia
before offering them a free test. We leave
the tests with them and then go back later
in the evening to collect any completed
ones” says Stephen McCrudden, the
supervising Peer Educator for the Newcastle
Door Knock campaign.
Successful avenues for reaching high
numbers of screens have been via colleges
and universities in each of the Primary Care
Trusts, student door knocks in halls of
residence and well known student areas
and festivals such as hoppings, evolution
and Pride.
“We find that the students are very
receptive. We often get the whole
household taking tests which can be up to
six students. Even those that don't take a
test still learn about chlamydia and are
given information so they can seek a test
later should they want one”
Peer educators are young people who are
trained by the CSP to deliver health
messages to other young people and
encourage them to take a simple test for
chlamydia. Peer educators are used for
outreach type activities where young
people hang out in colleges bars and
festivals etc. This enables CSP staff to work
more strategically with screening venues to
embed screening into sustainable core
services and to target more vulnerable
groups who may need further support.
The theme for this parade was “True
Colours”, it was felt that as individuals
LGBT people often hide their true colours
whether to avoid homophobia and
discrimination. The emphasis was put on
everyone to have fun.
The team designed their own costumes and
one of the peer educators volunteered to
wear the chlamydia fairy costume! The
team marched with a banner to promote
the message amongst Gay, lesbian, bisexual
or transgender communities that 1 in 10
young people have chlamydia that anyone
can catch chlamydia and also provided
specific leaflets with all local GUM contact
information to encourage full sexual health
screening.
Advertising and Marketing
Peer Education activity during
2008/9 included:
Student door knocks
Pride Event
Students in Sunderland, Newcastle and
South Tyneside can now take a test in the
comfort of their own home.
The chlamydia screening programme was
proud to be part of the first ever Northern
Pride in July this year.
Part of this festival included the Pride
Parade and the Pink Picnic. The event was
part of a celebration of the vibrancy that
gay, lesbian and bisexual and trans (LGBT)
people have brought to our communities.
The first marches were both serious and
fun, and served to inspire the widening
activist movement growing to become
annual events in other cities around the
world. “Gay Liberation” and “Gay
Freedom” were dropped in favour for the
name “Gay Pride”
18
An Advertising and marketing sub group
has been running for the last year. This
group has representation from the 6
Primary Care Trusts, CSP Manager and Head
of Communications. The group is
accountable to the NT&W Steering group
and plans all of the NT&W CSP media
activity. The group has produced a
communications strategy and action plan.
Campaigns which this group has been
involved in include TV Campaign, Viral
Marketing Holiday
campaign, Pride
festival and various
radio campaigns.
19
Creative Chlamydia Event
workers helped support the ideas, which
were original, creative and fun. The young
people worked on their individual projects
for up to 4 months, many of them
undertaking a great deal of research with
their peers in the process
In partnership with NT&W CSP, City of
Sunderland College and Children's services
the Voluntary Sector Youth Forum and its
member organizations has worked hard to
increase awareness of chlamydia within
neighborhood projects.
Young people presented their ideas to a
panel of judges (nicknamed “the Dragons”
from dragons den)
An event was organised by Amanda Gerry,
Project Officer, voluntary Sector Youth
Forum to celebrate the success of everyone
who participated in the pilot took place at
the National Glass Centre on 12th March
2009. 127 people attended including young
people and their workers from youth work
organizations across the city, partner
agencies including City of Sunderland
College and representatives from various
organizations across the region were
invited to attend.
A chlamydia board game styled on the
world famous Monopoly took the winning
prize at a youth event held to raise
awareness of the importance of screening
for this sexually transmitted infection.
The winners were (SNYP) Southwick
Neighborhood Youth Project with
their Monopoly style chlamydia board
game style,
City of Sunderland College with an STI Top
Trumps card game. A downloadable game
of top trumps complete with lesson plans
for youth groups/schools/colleges) to
introduce conversations around STI'S in a
fun and interactive way blank TOP Trump
cards for young people to design their own
STI side kicks.
The aims of the event were:
• To continue to promote and raise
awareness of chlamydia and other STI's
is to involve young people; this event
helped encourage young people to have
a voice by entering their own ideas to
promote this important health message.
Ideas were show cased at
the event by over 86 young
people from 12
organisations
• To celebrate the
achievements of everyone
involved in the chlamydia
pilot and partner
organizations, and to say
thank you to projects for
helping make the initiative
a success.
Evaluation of Postal Service
Another winning entry
who wants to be a
chlamydiaire! City of
Sunderland YMCA
foyer produced an
interactive power
point game based on
the game “who wants
to be a millionaire”
The postal service is where young
people self request a free confidential
chlamydia testing kit via the website
www.checkyourbits.org or by texting
their name and address to GREMLIN
80010. The Programme receives a high
proportion of screens via this route.
During 2008/09 4,038 screens were self
requested and returned via the postal
service. 2291 were from females and
1745 were from males which shows this
is a very effective way of screening
young people. 11.2% of these screens
were positive which indicates we are
reaching a high risk population in terms of
sexual health
Pit stop youth centre
(oxclose and district
young peoples project
produced graffiti art.
Young men from the
project worked with a professional
graffiti artist to produce 3d colorful
boards displaying the chlamydia gremlin.
Other young people wrote songs and
recorded them onto CDs to give away
and dressed up in themed costumes made
from condoms.
During 2008/09 those accessing the website
had the oppotunity to inform us how they
heard about the programme. The majority of
those indicated by word of mouth which is
fantastic as young people are talking about
sexual health and the chlamydia screening
programme. Radio advertising featured next
alongside poster, leaflets and website searches.
The graph below shows the number of tests
self requested by pateints from eachPCT
including positivity rates.
Comments from
young people about
the night included:
Young people from the
voluntary youth projects
across the city of Sunderland
and Sunderland College were
asked to think of an idea that
would try and raise the
awareness of chlamydia to lots
of other young people. Their
ideas could take any form,
they could use any
materials/resources they
wanted to, and their youth
Great ideas
from young
people
Excellent to see
what other
projects are up to
Mint
20
Brill night, young
people were great
21
Really
enjoyed it
Examples of Good
practice across the
Primary Care Trusts
Working with Community
Pharmacies
Chlamydia Screening is being rolled out
across all Pharmacies offering Emergency
Oral Hormonal Contraception (EOHC) in
Northumberland, Newcastle and North
Tyneside. All pharmacists have received
training on chlamydia screening and its
effects, including the screening process of
free chlamydia testing kits. Specific
literature including shelf stickers, till
wobblers and credit card dispensers holding
credit cards asking the general public to ask
their pharmacist for a test, has been
designed incorporating the chlamydia
gremlin.
Sunderland Teaching
Primary Care Trust
In June 2008 an officer was seconded from
Children's Services to manage Sunderland's
activity, forge new partnerships and build
relationships with organisations that could
support the chlamydia screening
programme.
From the outset a mapping exercise and a
detailed action plan helped secure the sign
up of partners. It offered them a focus and
resources were co-ordinated to kick-start
and support activity for the year ahead.
This scheme has been implemented to
improve access to screening for young
people, especially those accessing
emergency contraception. It has proved
very popular as pharmacies offer extended
opening hours including weekends which
mean young people can
access a free test with
ease.
Activity included mass screening in call
centers to information in all local housing
and site offices along with specially tailored
posters. A successful partnership was
formed with Sunderland's biggest taxi firm.
They briefed their drivers and delivered
chlamydia messages both outside and inside
172 cabs free of charge.
This service will
now be expanded
to train accredited
pharmacists to
offer free
treatment to those
testing positive for
chlamydia via the
CSP under the terms of
a Patient Group Directive.
Those testing positive will also be
provided with information for partner
notification. Screening through community
pharmacy will provide late night and
weekend access
Primary Care Trust were keen that this
programme be developed to offer this
service to all schools in 08/09 for all
year 11 pupils.
briefings to front line
staff and information
was displayed in the
city's 20 libraries and
customer contact
centers.
Consultation with
Community and
Cultural Services
determined that
there was a need
for specific
literature in their
11 gyms and
wellness
centers
A briefing paper back in 2008 from the
Health Protection agency had already
highlighted schools and FE colleges as ideal
locations to promote chlamydia screening.
A proposal was then made to the
Sunderland head teachers meeting by the
chlamydia screening programme manager
and the Sunderland Health Advisor, that
every school would allow access by the
chlamydia screening programme to hold an
assembly at the very least with the option
to test on the day where possible. A
unanimous decision was made to allow this.
A partnership
with the
Connexions Service, 80
staff from the youth offending
service, the City College and
its 5 sites and 15 voluntary
youth work organisations
enabled Sunderland's
youth population be
adequately targeted.
The aim of the assembly was to raise
awareness of chlamydia infection, screening
and treatment. The assembly would also
often create a feeling of excitement within
the school of “something new” which may
in itself motivate some young people to
screen that would otherwise have not
attended a main stream service.
17 children's centers and over 100 health
staff have raised awareness of taking a
chlamydia test. This now takes place at anti
natal, postnatal stages and various days in
their calendar such as baby days and young
parent's courses.
The response was excellent all schools
were contacted 10 schools offered both
assemblies and screening, 4 schools held
assemblies only, 2 schools cancelled due
to exam commitments and only 1 school
failed to respond.
A large proportion of Sunderland's 17
secondary schools raise awareness via
assemblies with some schools offering
screening too. A rolling programme will
take place in 2009/10
In an attempt to establish the level
of understating that young people have
about chlamydia a consultation was
carried out by SVSYF (Sunderland Voluntary
Sector Youth Forum) in partnership with
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear chlamydia
screening programme.
Regular campaigns have also taken place at
Christmas and summer holiday periods as
well as a huge citywide event over the
Valentines weekend.
A range of innovative and traditional
techniques were used to raise and discuss
chlamydia including questionnaires, a
power point presentation including adverts
and videos as well as a session involving
interactive electronic voting; a new tool
which allows for immediate and
anonymous consultation with the ability to
answer set questions and receive immediate
feedback via instant text messaging and
personal responses.
By Glen Riddle
The city's biggest employers were
encouraged to be involved and chlamydia
kits were made available in toilets in City
Council and Primary Care Trust buildings.
Marketing material was also displayed in
every GP surgery, Pharmacy and Dentist
across the city.
Partnerships with Cultural Services offered
22
Screening in Schools in
Sunderland
The academic school year 07/08 had seen a
small pilot commence within sunderland
with good results. However The chlamydia
screening programme as well Sunderland
23
South Tyneside Primary
Care Trust
School assemblies were split into 2 sessions;
part 1 asked questions to establish general
statistics and gain a benchmark of
information about what young people
actually already knew about chlamydia,
Part 2 was a power point demonstration
delivered by the Sunderland health advisor
to confirm facts about chlamydia with more
in depth information about the infection.
Following on from the successful launch of
the C2 card in June 2008, South Tyneside has
seen a continual increase in the number of
young people being screened across the
borough. The C card was rebranded to C2
which means young people can sign up for
free condoms and will automatically be
offered a chlamydia test. The Matrix Young
People's Service offers drug and alcohol
support tot young people and their families
and has also become an excellent example of
a chlamydia outlet. They have positioned a
neon C2 light in their window and
consequently have become more
recognisable as an outlet and as an open
access agency are being visited more
frequently by young people.
An evaluation is currently under way of the
consultation and will be available soon.
Outreach work with
luxury toilets
The chlamydia
screening
programme
continues to
develop new
innovative ways
of promoting
and providing
access to
screening for
young people. A
new and effective way to achieve this has
been by doing outreach work in town
centre venues not only by promoting health
messages but by also being able to provide
on the spot facilities for young people to
take a test there and then. In February 2009
Sunderland Teaching Primary Caret Trust,
supported by the chlamydia screening
programme and local youth groups as well
as the peer educators held a two day event
around Valentines Day to promote positive
health messages around chlamydia.
Information was also provided around local
drug and alcohol support services YDAP.
Luxury toilets were commissioned so
anyone wanting to take a test was able to
do so. The two day event proved very
successful with over 200 tests taken. A
similar event was also hosted by South
Tyneside PCT in March 2009 in South Shields
town centre again supported by the local
drug and alcohol service Matrix the event
was also promoted by the health bus which
travelled to local surrounding areas
promoting the event. Due to the success of
these events we hope to develop these
events in the future.
During March 'posh' toilets were positioned
on King Street on South Tyneside town
centre. Throughout the day information was
available from a variety of services including
sexual health and alcohol, Screening was
offered to young people. For those young
people coming down with 2 friends they had
the option of receiving either a chlamydia
mug or some chlamydia underwear. In the
future it is hoped to expand upon this idea
and take it further around the borough.
By Libby Malcolm, Chlamydia Screening
Programme Worker
agreed to trial
one of the large
postal pack boxes
in the surgery.
The box was
delivered in July
08 and Heather
decided to
position it in the
entrance lobby. The result was an
increase in
screens from 6
prior to the box
being in situ to a
total of 86 for the
year April
08/March 09.
Heather said “Young people can take the
tests discreetly as the box is not visible from
the waiting area. Young people in the area
have spread the word and often come after
school to pick up a pack”. These postal
packs are available for all young people in
the area and not just registered patients
and this is a great way of increasing
screening while providing an accessible
service for
young
people.
packs. The practice bought their own plastic
containers for the packs and situated them in
the male and female toilets and on the
reception desk. Posters and typed messages
at Reception informed patients to take a
pack and advised patients where packs were
situated within the practice. Diane Mills and
Maureen Imrie (administrative staff) have
played an important role in the ordering and
replenishment of stock. Diane orders more
stock as soon as she has received the previous
order to ensure the boxes are never empty.
This example of good practice lead to the
production of postal pack boxes being
designed for the programme to be used in
GP practices and a variety of settings
throughout Northumberland Tyne and Wear.
Sue Bates (Nurse Manager, Louise Duncan
(GP), Nadine Farrow (Assistant Practice
Manager), Dawn Cuniff (Healthcare
Assistant), Nelsie Crumbie (Practice Nurse),
Gloria Olley (Healthcare Assistant) and Lee
Crammon (Practice Manager)
Gateshead Primary
Care Trust
Success in Primary Care
The friendly, enthusiastic team at Marsden
Road Health Centre have supported the
chlamydia screening programme 100%
from the onset achieving 91 screens from
April 07 to March 08 and 87 from April 08
to March 09. The screens were achieved by
using innovative ways to display postal
By Kate Morris, Health Adviser
24
Gateshead had its first major advertising
campaign over the Christmas period.
Adverts appeared on the inside and back of
buses and in Gateshead Metro station.
The adverts used the very popular Gremlin
character in a Christmas party setting with
the strap line 'It's our Party Season too'.
Dr Heather Galloway (GP Sexual Health
Lead) - Birtley Medical Group
Dr Heather Galloway at Birtley Medical
Group has been very supportive of the
chlamydia screening programme and
By Lorraine Neild, Health Advisor
25
Newcastle Primary
Care Trust
West End Youth Enquiry Service
WEYES
WEYES is a well established youth project in
the West End of Newcastle. We have been
working with young people on sexual
health issues for the past 10 years and
specifically with chlamydia screening for the
past 2.5 years. We work hard to ensure that
young people feel comfortable and safe
accessing the project and are small enough
to ensure that young people become
familiar with the wider staff team. This has
positive results in regards to young people
feeling confident about accessing the
service on a regular basis. We have made
the option of Chlamydia screening an
integral part of our C Card induction
process and regularly advertise this service
to all young people accessing the Sexual
Health Drop In service we provide.
2008/09 has been a great year for
partnership working between the C-Card
Scheme and chlamydia screening
programme in Newcastle. In April 2008 a
pilot scheme where Chlamydia Tests were
available as part of the service offered to
young people who accessed C-Card was
started. It was important the outlets chosen
were strategically placed across the city and
were popular with young people; because
of this the following outlets were chosen to
take part:
• Streetwise
• WEYES
• Walker YMCA
• Gosforth High
School
The staff from chlamydia screening have
been an integral support system for our
staff and provide the project with a number
of incentives for young people to
encourage uptake of screening - the glow
in the dark condoms in particular were a
real hit with the young people we work
with! Our partnership with the chlamydia
screening team continues to develop and
we hope this will continue to have a
positive impact on the sexual health of
young people in Newcastle.
• Kenton School
• Slatyford Youth
Centre
• D 2 Youth Zone
• FAR Community Centre
• SCARPA
• Denton Young Peoples Project
The pilot scheme was successful and
following this more C-Card outlets have
started offering chlamydia screening as part
of their service. At present Newcastle's
chlamydia screening Health Advisor and CCard Co-ordinator are visiting all C-Card
outlets to speak to staff with the goal of
getting every outlet to take part in the
programme, either actively offering
chlamydia screening or becoming a
signposting venue.
By Gemma Lockyer, Manager
North Tyneside Primary
Care Trust
notification will be carried out by the
chlamydia screening health advisor who will
go into the prison and treat. This is a high
risk population so we are keen to keep this
scheme running. In the future plans are to
offer screening out to all young offenders
already serving a sentence.
The Base Barnardos is a young people's
service which offers a range of information,
advice, support and signposting to young
people in North Tyneside. The Base have
been part of the screening programme
since it was launched in January 2007, and
have now embedded screening into their
everyday practice. Their approach to
screening is a two pronged approach which
is informal and aims to de stigmatize sexual
health. Any young people who drop into
the centre and approaches for any
particular issue such as homelessness they
are offered a whole range of services which
includes sexual health and chlamydia
testing. The reason why the Base believes
this works so well is because the young
people like the idea that the chlamydia
screening service is confidential, anonymous
and that they can receive their results by
text message.
Julie Taylor, Health Advisor
Areas for further
development during
2009/10
• Embed screening into core
services CASH/TOP/Antenatal
• Develop LES for pharmacies to
deliver treatment and PN
• Work with GPs to increase
screening volumes
• Increase screening volumes with
young men across
Northumberland Tyne and Wear
• Increase/engage screening with
hard to reach groups, BME,
MSM, Asylum seekers,
homelessness
• Carry out local research to
inform the development of the
programme and improve
practice
• Further develop marketing
campaign to raise awareness of
chlamydia testing and provide
new messages (chlamydia is
invisible, easy to test easy to
treat)
• Pilot innovative projects to
increase the uptake of
screening
• Increase screening volumes to
reach 25% of the 15 to 24 year
old population in 2009/10
Sessions are also held with young people
around health issues or sexual health
sessions this gives the young people an
opportunity to explore experiences around
sexual health including the opportunity to
take a test. Young people also feel
comfortable to attend for repeat testing
after new sexual partners or after an at risk
episode.
By Katrina Fox, Deputy Manager, The Base
Northumberland
Care Trust
Castington Young Offenders institute
During the summer of 2009 C-Card will be
re-launched with a re designed card which
will include the Chlamydia Gremlin, this has
been decided after consultation with young
people who accessed the C-Card Scheme
where 95% said they recognised the
Chlamydia Gremlin and 84% asked for the
Gremlin to be added to the card.
By Mark Hedley, Health Promotion
Specialist (Sexual Health)
Emma Collins, and Sam Lane,
Project Workers
26
Chlamydia screening has now commenced
in the prison. Each young person during
their initial health assessment is given
information regarding chlamydia, and also
offered a chlamydia test via a urine sample.
So far this has been extremely successful.
Staff have been really supportive working
in partnership with the chlamydia
programme, with screens coming in on a
weekly basis. Treatment and partner
27